Burton travelled to Walsall and after arriving in time for the arranged 3.00 p.m. kick-off found themselves with only nine minutes to change and warm-up for a new kick-off time of 2.30 p.m. So denied their usual warm-up routine plus two players travelling direct still having to arrive Burton had to start the game with a hastily rearranged line-up, while the well-drilled Walsall outfit were all prepared to play.

As to be expected Walsall started the stronger of the two sides and soon exploited Burton’s lack of preparation with a series of driving mauls that resulted in three early tries in the first fifteen minutes. But with Burton now up to speed the game took on a completely different aspect as Chris Cooke spun off a maul to link with Chris Lycett and Ben Stone for the latter to race through to open Burton’s scoring.

The remainder of the match was very level with Walsall only scoring once more thanks to the destructive efforts of Simon Collier, Mark Topliss and Ian Fitzgerald in the back row and the crunching tackles of Joe Counter, Chris Owen and PJ Solomon in the backs. A Dave Ward penalty from 40 metres completed the scoring as a far from disgraced Burton side went down 24-8, and perhaps with more than nine minutes to prepare a different score line would have been created by the spirit and character shown by this team.